Sasuke's True Love
by beautifulluckyaura
Summary: Okay, this is a story where Sasuke comes back after killing two certain people and Sakura doesn't even like him anymore. Eventual SasuSaku, NaruHina, InoShika, and NejiTen Rated for future chapters
1. Chapter 1

Sasuke's True Love 

Chapter One

Sasuke walked back to Konohagakure after killing Orochimaru and the real traitor, Uchiha Itachi. He wanted to go back to his home town and his old life, but he would never beg. His Uchiha pride would not allow him to. Orochimaru had been too weak for Sasuke let him live. So here he was, running through the forest at record speed, not even knowing what to expect when he got back. He felt three other chakras nearing him, not very strong, meaning they had just come back from a mission, but strong enough to tell him they were all ANBU...

...with the unknown ANBU...

"I sense another chakra signature I am familiar with, but can't seem to place, guys," said a female voice from behind a feline ANBU mask.

"Let's slow d-down and try to find out who it is," said a slightly stuttering quiet female voice, this one from behind a rabbit mask.

"Okay!" said a hyper-active voice from behind a fox mask.

They walked in the direction their leader took off in, hood up, and masks tied tight. They were shocked by the sight before them, for there, skidding to a stop, was S-class criminal, Uchiha Sasuke.

The first to recover was of course, their leader. "Uchiha Sasuke, we are obliged to place you under arrest and take you directly to the Hokage, Tsunade-sama. Your punishment will be decided there."

"Hn. I won't be taken prisoner, I'll go of my own free will," he replied.

"If you make a wrong move, Uchiha, understand that I will be forced to tie you using chakra strings and forcefully take you to the Godaime," obviously the one in the rabbit mask.

"Hn."

"Like old times; one word answers that are universal. Come on, Uchiha," the leader said. Once more drawing attention to herself. Mostly trying to keep her OBVIOUS teammates from being recognized.

Ten minutes later they were in front of the Hokage's office. The leader knocked and a long groaning could be heard from the other side of the door.

"Go AWAY!!!!" said Tsunade, obviously not happy. "Shouldn't have had that last margarita with Jiraya!"

"Tsunade-sama! You know not to trust the pervie-sage!" yelled the leader.

"Yeah!" agreed the loud mouth ninja. "The pervie sage may have trained me but not even I trust him!"

"Shut up, Sakura, Naruto! Where's Hinata? I thought I sent you on a mission."

The three sighed and took off their masks, but the leader did not lower her hood.

"We brought you a piece of the past you might be interested in," Sakura said, keeping her back to Sasuke. "Don't worry, we got our mission done. We just found a stray on the way back from Mist."

"Urrrrgghh! Bring 'it' in, I've got an idea who 'it' is that you brought me. So, when did he kill Orochimaru?"

Sakuara opened the door and walked into her sensei's office.

"I don't know, I'm just the delivery girl."

"I killed him one week ago. I killed Itachi two days ago."

"Itachi?" asked Tsunade.

"I went looking for him as soon as I finished off Orochimaru."

Tsunade groaned. "Naruto, Hinata, you two can go home. Sakura, wait outside, this may take a while. Sasuke, sit down. I need to find out EXACTLY where your loyalty lies."

Sakura went back out with Naruto and Hinata at her heels. She sat down on the floor, pulling down hert hood to reveal pink hair with black highlights. "Go on, guys. I'll catch up later," she said. As Hinata and Naruto left, Sakura leaned her head back against the wall and fell asleep.

So, do you think I should continue. Please review, I could probably need some help. If you want me to post the second chapter, all you have to do is ask. I've got it written, just not typed yet...

Beautiful Lucky Aura.


	2. Chapter 2

Thanks Hyuuga Amber! Your the BEST!!- Uchiha Suki

Chapter 2

Sakura woke up when she felt someone staring at her. She looked up to see Sasuke watching her with a shocked expression on his face.

"What!?" she yelled.

"Hn." was all he said followed by a hand gesture that requested that she follow him into the currently dreaded office of Tsunade. She entered the room and sat in one of the chairs. Sasuke sat next to her on another seat.

"Sakura, I have some good news for the village and some bad news for you. The good news for the village is that Orochimaru and Uchiha Itachi are now dead. The bad news for you is that you know have to house their murderer as you were the one who lead the ANBU team that found him."

"Not going to happen, Tsunade. I won't even be home enough to monitor him. You know that when I am not on a mission I spend nearly all my time at the hospital. He could be lying to gain our trust so that Orochimaru can attack,"said Sakura. She was very relunctant to have a traitor in her house.

"That's why I've put you on leave. You will no longer be working at the hospital or going on ANY form of missions," Tsunade said, getting a little irratated. "Now, GO! You interrupted my nap."

...Later that day...

As they reached Sakura's house, Sakura said the first words she had uttered since leaving Tsunade, and it did not make Sasuke happy. "The rules, responsibilities, and restrictions you will follow will be explained when we get into my house. Then you will be shown your room and will stay there until I say otherwise."

"YOU expect to restrict ME? Not a chance," Sasuke said, in his usual "I got a stick somewhere unpleasant" voice.

"Listen, pip-squeak!" said Sakura turning on the unfortunate boy. "Do you honestly think I sat there and just CRIED after you left? Hell NO! I trained until I surpassed even Tsunade in healing AND strength. I made ANBU five years after we last saw you. In my spare time, I still work at the hospital as a medic-nin. You may think that I am weak, but I am NOTHING like the Sakura you last saw!"

"Hn!" was, once again, his only reply.

They entered a nice simple house.

"Sit down, Sasuke." Sakura ordered. "Here are the conditions:

1. You cant leave this house without me or my permission.

2.You WILL help clean and

3. you can't get angry if I have any of my 'annoying' friends over," she finished.

"Now, come on and I'll show you your room."

She took him upstairs to a white room with a bed, a dresser, and a common desk.

"I'll decorate it later, but for right now, stay here. My room is two doors to the right," she said.

Then she left him there. Sasuke laid down on the bed and fell asleep.

Sakura went to her room and doodled for a while before she, too, fell asleep.

A/N I don't know if Sakura can be a Medic-nin and an ANBU, but for right now, she can. 


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three 

The next morning, Sasuke woke up first out of pure hunger. 'She said her room was two rooms down," he thought. He walked down the hall and stopped in front of a door with an ink sketch of a cherry blossom framed on it. He walked in, not even bothering to knock. The room was extraordinary, with dark red walls that had falling cherry blossoms everywhere. Everything was either a shade of pink or red. He walked up to the bed on which Sakura was curled around a drawing of a chibi Ino and a chibi Shikamaru kissing with a heart between the two. He poked her on the forehead and...

BOOM! Was slammed into the wall by Sakura's fist while Sakura jumped out of bed and landed in a fighting stance.

"Rapist!" she yelled. "I knew I couldn't trust you, you damn Uchiha!" she yelled, pulling back a chakra infused fist with which to hit Sasuke.

"I'm Hungry!" he yelled defensively.

Sakura stopped the fist that was currently flying towards the unfortunate Uchiha. "Then learn to knock, baka! Naruto was right you are a freaking Teme!"

Naruto popped up in the window.

"Sakura-chan, did the Teme try raping you? Don't worry I'll kill his sorry ass!" Naruto yelled, proceeding to jump through the window.

He beat Sasuke up pretty bad and was about to use Rasengan when Sakura grabbed his charged up fist.

"You IDIOT Naruto! He wasn't trying to rape me, he just came into my room, WITOUT KNOCKING, because he was HUNGRY, and decided to POKE my FOREHEAD!!!!" she yelled.

"Ooooo... bad move Uchiha." Naruto said."I did that once and she destroyed Konoha's entire supply of ramen. It was the worst week of my life!"

"It was also the healthiest." Sakura mumbled.

Kakashi popped up in her room along with a puff of smoke.

"Who's the Rapist?" he asked in his usual tone.

"No one." Sakura said. "Just a certain UCHIHA decided to come into my room, WITHOUT KNOCKING, and POKE my FOREHEAD to wake me up because he was HUNGRY!" she yelled.

"Whoa. BIG bad move, Sasuke. I did that once and she took a torch to my entire set of Icha Icha merchandise, movies, AND books." Kakashi said, as usual, in his bored tone.

Gai and Lee popped up in Sakura's room, both wearing their signature spandex and posing their "good-guy" poses and using the blindingly annoying "ping-smile". "I shall protect you my youthfully beautiful Sakura-chan! Fear not, for Rock Lee shall protect you with the help of all that is youthful in this beautifully young world will help me!" Lee yelled.

"Go Lee and protect your youthful love from her un-youthful attacker!" Gai said.

Lee was running toward Sakura's rescue when she punched him in the gut.

"LEE, GAI, get the HELL outta my ROOM!!!!" she yelled. "LEE, you especially."

Lee and Gai ran out of the room, through the window and down the street, Lee yelling, "I love you my beautiful Cherry Blossom!" and Gai yelling "DON'T KILL ME!".

"That was...awkward." muttered Kakashi.

"Hn," was the "affirmative" he got from Glacier Jerk, while Naruto and Sakura gave a soft and prolonged "Yeah..."

"Well, I'm going guys!" Kakashi said."Sakura, make the boys play nice, boys no chidori or Rasengan. Sasuke, I'll kick your ass later in training." With that, Kakashi disappeared in yet another of his signature gray smoke puffs, most probably to watch Icha-Icha paradise the movie...AGAIN!

"...and he called Gai and Lee's departure awkward..."muttered Naruto. "Anyway, Sakura, you said the teme was hungry! Let's go to Ichiraku (can somebody tell me if i spelled that right?) and eat as much ramen as each of us can buy!"

...Two Hours later...

Sakura and Sasuke were walking back to Sakura's house when a dangerously murderous chakra walked out of a dark alleyway. Neji appeared, very pissed at finding the boy he failed to rescue walking with Konoha's perfect little Kunoichi.

"Traitor," he said."What are YOU doing back?"

"Trying to go back to the way things were," Sasuke mumbled.

"I don't care. If you left us all once, you can leave us again!" with that Neji ran at Sasuke and they got into a gigantic fight. Everyone started to run in order to get away from the fighting pair. Sakura saw that she had to get the two away from each other. She knew that if she grabbed Sasuke that Neji would destroy him and if she grabbed Neji Sasuke would destroy him, so she called the one person she knew was Neji's soft spot: Tenten.

As soon as Tenten got there, Sakura grabbed Sasuke and motioned for Tenten to do the same with Neji. They finally got a hold on both of the boys.

"Okay you two," Tenten began."I believe that Sakura and I should exlain a few things. First of all, Neji, Sasuke has already proven his allegiance to Tsunade and To our village."

"Second, Sasuke, to attack another shinobi from the same village is very unhonorable," Sakura added.

The two went through basically the entire ninja handbook. Then they let the two boys go, Sakura took Sasuke home, while Tenten took Neji home.

**A/N: wow, i think this is my longest chapter ever. Well... please REVIEW i really like when people show they care!**

**Oh! And if you review not only will I check out your stories (most of the time i do) but i'll also send you a little poem ill write based on your name, whether penname or real name... **

**Beautifulluckyaura.**

**P.S. On Back to our parent's time I hit a speed bump, I NEED TO KNOW Who to make freak out. Heck, I'll take anyone, whether random or not.**


	4. A normal morningfor THEM

**A/N: Sorry for taking soooo long to update…**

**Disclaimer: Read the title of the website you are on. FAN fiction. Not OWNER fiction!!!**

Sakura was not a morning person, yet, every day, she got up early, just to watch the sunrise, then she would go back to her bed and become dead to the world. Unfortunately, something, or rather, some_one _wouldn't let her go back to sleep.

"Sakura, breakfast, now," Sasuke said, walking into her room.

"Jesus, what a big vocabulary you have, O' Master of Geniuses and Prodigies," Sakura shot back, grumpy as she was every morning.

"Hn!" Sasuke muttered. He walked out of her room and downstairs.

"I'll give him breakfast! How 'bout a knuckle sandwich, Teme-sama!" Sakura mumbled, getting up from bed and stumbling towards the stairs.

"I heard that!" Sasuke yelled( well for him it's yelling).

"I don't freakin' care!" Sakura yelled. She continued stumbling down the stairs, mumbling about Temes and how boys weren't worth the trouble.

When she got to the kitchen, she grabbed a bowl, a spoon, milk and a box of cereal. Then she walked into the living room, where her least favorite clan "prodigy" was sitting, watching CARTOONS, on the couch. She shoved the stuff in his hands and walked back upstairs.

Sasuke looked down at the crud in his hands, confused about what the heck to do with it. He walked upstairs and into Sakura's room, finding that she was already out.

"Sakura!" he yelled. "What the hell do I do with _this_?"

Sakura groaned and rolled over.

"Open box, open bag _inside _box, fill bowl with content of bag, pour in milk, eat with spoon," Sakura explained. She sounded as if she were talking to a kindergartener. "If Lee can do it, so can you!"

She rolled back over.

Sasuke looked even more confused, if that was possible.

"Sakura, you do it, _now!_" Sasuke said, dumping all of the stuff on the foot of her bed and walking out.

Sakura rolled over and groaned, for the millionth time that day.

_Seriously, _couldn't he do _anything_ for himself? Gosh, even Shikamaru would make his own cereal. She sighed and got up, going to the kitchen and making his cereal for him.

"HERE!" she said, shoving it in his hands. She walked upstairs and fell asleep.

…blah……ten minutes later……

"Sakura!" Sasuke said, walking into her room…AGAIN! "How do you wash dishes?"

She walked down the stairs and washed the dishes Sasuke had left on the sink.

She walked into the living room where Sasuke was sitting. She expected to just walk through and go back to sleep.

"Tomatoes." Sasuke said.

Sakura was pissed off now. She walked over to him and punched him in the face, effectively knocking him out.

She walked upstairs and fell asleep upside down on her bed.

………..BLA…… three HOURS later…..

Sakura walked downstairs from her room.

"Sasuke, I had the strangest dream…" she said, walking into the living room. Then she stopped as she saw a knocked out Sasuke with a broken nose on her couch…

**A/N: Ahhh… a normal morning after Teme-sama's return…**


	5. three hours later

**A/N: Sorry for how long it took me to update... I literally lost my notebook. Sooooo...yea...**

**People who I want to acknowledge:**

**shukakubaby  
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**All the people who like this story so much they put it on their favorites or alert list!! THANKS!!!**

* * *

Sasuke woke up three hours after the "incident", very sore, and wishing he had just gotten ramen with the dobe. Oh well, the loser fest could wait. 

He walked into Sakura's room.

"If you want a repeat of earlier, just ask!" she said.

"Hn!" Sasuke muttered. Maybe the loser fest _couldn't _wait. "I'm going out for ramen with the Dobe."

"Is that allowed?" Sakura asked, not really caring.

"Who cares?" He mumbled, walking out of her room and down the stairs.

He walked out the door and kept walking until he saw the Ramen stand. Predictably, the Dobe was sitting on a stool slurping down a bowl.

"Oi! Teme!" Naruto yelled. "Come on!"

Sasuke sat in the stool next to Naruto.

"What can I get you?" The old man's daugther asked.

"I don't know…" Sasuke said. The didn't have ramen in sound, and he couldn't remember what his favorite ramen was. Maybe he should have thought about that _before_ he came. As a matter of fact, he didn't remember liking any food that much.

"Just get him some beef ramen!" Naruto yelled.

"Okay, Naruto-san!" the girl said, smiling as she went to go get it.

1 hour Later… Sasuke's poor stomach

Sasuke walked back to Sakura's house.

It was a lot longer when you were full.

He felt restricted. He was wearing a newer version of his old uniform.

He had the black shirt with the Uchiha-fan on th eback and some baggy black shorts with his kunai holster and the regular pouch and belt. His katana was stuffed into his belt.

This was a far cry from what he was used to.

He was used to what Naruto "affectionately" called his "Sound-Man-Whore-for-Orochimaru" uniform. He was used to being able to move freely. It may have been for Orochimaru's entertainment, but it was still what he was used to.

'_Oh no, I don't know what I'll do if Sakura's still in a mood.' _He thought. '_oh well.'_

He walked through the door, only to find a note.

_Dearest(NOT!) Sasuke,_

_I've been asked to go to the hospital, there is a team of jounins who are in really bad shape and Tsunade-sama needed my help. Please stay out of trouble._

_Sorry to make you wait(NOT!!),_

_Sakura._

_P.S. If I find so much as one lint-ball out of place I will hunt you down, burn all your clothes and tie you, stark-naked, to a post in the training grounds!!!!_

Oh yeah, Sakura was still pitching a fit. '_But who do we know that can beat up an entire jounin team? Itachi's dead so… Akatsuki?' **'You know it took me FOREVER but I finally got out of the dark stuff in the back of your mind!'**_

Suddenly a picture of Orochimaru being killed was brought into his mind.

_**'Wait, wrong mental image!'**_

Suddenly a new picture popped into his mind. SAKURA in a BIKINI!!!

'_Wow… Do you really think she'll look that…HEY!!!'_

_**'Haha!! I'm sorry outer me, but you have to admit, Sakura's grown up…A LOT!!'**_

_'Okay, you are officially being put back into the recesses of my mind…NOW!'_

Inner Sasuke was then shoved into the back of Sasuke's mind and looked into a big huge cage.

_**'Aww! Cool I have a PS2!!!' **_was the last sentence Sasuke heard from the nuiscance…for a while.

THREE MORE HOURS LATER!!!

Sakura walked through the front door of her house to find Sasuke watching Saw II. She nearly screamed. Erm…Scratch that…she DID scream!

Sasuke turned around and looked up from the barbeque sandwich he was eating.

"What?" he asked. "Can't you handle a danged horror movie, weakling? You are a ninja for crying out loud!!"

And that's when Sakura lost it…AGAIN.

"You have the guts to come into my home, watch that stupidity, and then INSULT me?" she yelled. "Screw Tsunade-sama's instructions! You are DEAD, **UCHIHA!"**

Then she took a butcher knife out of the kitchen and startled charging for Sasuke, yelling a throaty battle-cry.

Sasuke grabbed the knife and stopped Sakura. He threw the knife to the side. Then he grabbed Sakura against him until she stopped fighting. Then he was just holding Sakura and it felt…good…

'_NO! BAD SASUKE!' _he thought to himself. '_You __**don't **__like Sakura!'_

To prove this to himself he threw her into the couch and went up to his room, slamming the door and leaving a confused and still a bit pissed off Sakura sitting on the couch.


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura sat and thought, about the previous weeks. Wow, so many arguments, fights, all sorts of things, all stemmed from the fact that an order was given and Sakura refused to fall in what she had once believed was love with the boy, with Sasuke. It was so much like Scarlet't obsession with Ashley. She put a mask and suit on him and fell "in love" with him.

She felt so pathetic. All because some idiot of a best friend had told her of her crush and she had jumped up to follow, to fit in. In fact, up until the day when Ino had mentioned Sasuke, Sakura had hardly even noticed him.

Ino may have had good intentions, but the results were…in a word, horrible. As they grew older Ino turned into a slut. How could this have happened, you may ask.

Ino was lead by a false love, just like Sakura, but at least Sakura wasn't that bad.

Ino had made Sakura forget her dreams. Sakura would have been so much stronger, less _useless_ if Ino had just left her alone about the Sasuke thing.

Sakura sighed. She _was _one of the strongest kunoichi now, but if she had been able to focus on her training instead of "_Sasuke-kun" _she would have been _much_ better off. How could there have ever been a time when she could be so…STUPID?

**Easy, baka, **inner mumbled. **You looked at that cute face, those PERFECT abs…oooh….**

_Shut up, you weirdo hentai…_Sakura trailed off, effectively ditching Inner in a cage.

Was there ever a possibility that she could have ever fallen in love with the pathetic ice-cube that was Sasuke. Maybe, if he ever decided to reach out to her, to somebody, to ANYBODY!

**That is never going to happen, baka.**

_Yes, I know, but a girl can dream, can't she?_

Today she was going to continue with the "assignment" Tsunade-sensei was giving her. It was more like a renovation project, but what did it matter? The project was to repair the old Uchiha Compound to its former glory.

_Hey, Inner? What are we supposed to do today._

Inner checked some notes. **Today we are cleaning the back garden of the Main House, since we've already completely redone the Main House itself. We have to fix the bridge that goes over the river-like pond, the benches, the bird feeders, and the fountain. Not to mention that the plants are overgrown and the grass has been burned away by the sun.**

_Soooo…. I'll fix the benches, bridge, fountain, and bird feeders first, then I will work on the pruning and bringing in the grass. I especially need to clean up that area around the Sakura trees…_

Thirty minutes later found Sakura standing in the middle of the garden of the Main House. She fixed the little wooden bridge first, then moved to the fountain. She drained all the water out of the ponds and cleaned the algae and stuff out of it, then filled it with clean water and adding chlorine and just a touch of blue dye. Next she got rid of all the old wooden benches and replaced them with stone ones. Finally, she got to the bid feeders which were done rather quickly.

She looked at her handy work.

**Not bad, outer, not bad at all. **

_Thanks…_

Then, she turned around. Everything had become over grown without a person to tend it, all except for the grass, which was completely gone. If it were a conscious being, it would have even been beyond Chiyo-baa-sama's techniques. She looked at it and sighed. She swept up all the dead leaves and blossoms from the entire garden, then took a spade and got rid of the leaves. She was one third of the way done. She had approximately two hours before dusk… this would be fun.

She started pruning all the overgrown plants, making them look respectable once again, that took up yet another hour. How could there be people…coughinocough… that would willingly do this ALL the time. It was bothersome.

She went and got squares of grass from the gardening store and laid them out to cover all the remaining area that was not a flower area, occasionally moving a bench or bird feeder to place the grass underneath it. Finally, she was done. The sun was about to set, so she walked into the house and got a glass of water, then went outside and watched as the sun set.

She heard the sound of the door to the Main House opening and closing, and finally Sasuke came out.

"Sakura… _you _did this?" he asked, looking around.

"Tsunade ordered me to," she answered.

"Hn."

"Damn Uchihas, why are you all so emotionless? It really pisses me off!" she suddenly yelled.

"Then why do you allow me to live with you?" he asked.

"Because I was the only one available when you first got here." Sakura answered, dumping her glass of water on him(**Teehee..)** and walking out of the complex..

All Sasuke could think was… _WHAT THE HECK???_

Halfway across town, in her apartment, Sakura glared at the ceiling of her room.

_How DARE he? We did all of that by ourselves and he has the guts to not even say "thank you" _she thought to her inner.

**He's a boy, they are idiots, need we go through this… um… conversation…again? **inner asked.

_Yes we do! I mean, even Naruto would know to say thank you. _Sakura mumbled.

**Yeah, I know, but Sasuke? Sasuke is a cold hearted bastard. Heck, he isn't even EMO anymore, he's just… emotionless.**

_You're telling me…_ Sakura mumbled.

She rolled over on her side and looked at her desk. It was full of sketches. Nobody ever knew that Sakura liked drawing, but she did. She especially liked drawing the forests surrounding Konoha, after all, it wasn't called "the village hidden in the leaves" for nothing.

She even had a couple of the Forest of Death. How shocking, huh? The most "innocent" member of Team Kakashi liked drawing pictures of the source of most people's nightmares. She found the forest entertaining. It kept her mind off of other things when she was in danger.

She kept thinking about Sasuke and the Uchiha Complex until she fell asleep.

**A/N: I am sick... ive gotta cold...it sucks... loser cold...its evil i swear! hmmmmm... Sorry the chapter's so short...**


	7. Chapter 7

Sasuke walked into Sakura's apartment. _What the hell did I do?_ he asked himself.

Unfortunately "he" answered. **Oh, it's quite simple really, YOU SOUNDED JUDGEMENTAL, BAKA-TEME! You probably made her feel like you didn't like it. **

_I thought I got rid of you… _Sasuke thought.

**Stupid, you can't get rid of a part of yourself, no matter how hard you try. You can repress it, but it always remains, that's how the memory jutsu you learned from Orochimaru works, remember?**

_Yeah, I remember, but I wish I didn't. _Sasuke mumbled.

He walked upstairs. He could feel her chakra signature in her room, so he walked in to apologize, but he found her sleeping instead. As he was about to close the door behind him, he heard a startled gasp and turned around as her chakra flared. What he saw wasn't an angry, awake, Sakura, instead he found a sleeping Sakura with a scrunched up forehead.

_She's having a bad dream…_he thought to himself. _Wait, what do I care?_

**You should care, because you know it and I know it, **his inner said.

_Know what? _he asked.

**If you don't know, I am not telling**, and with that, his inner stalked over to the only non-emo place in Sasuke's mind: the Not-emo corner, which was about the size of a nickel.

Sasuke sighed as Sakura bit her lip and nearly screamed, he couldn't just leave her like that. She looked as if she were having a very vivid nightmare, and he would never be able to handle it if he woke up to hear her crying. He sat on the edge of her bed and rubbed her back, since she had rolled over onto her stomach.

"Shhh…" he said, still rubbing her back. As if sensing him there, Sakura reached up and pulled him down to hug him, still sound asleep. _How am I supposed to get out of this?_ he asked himself.

**Don't, just enjoy it while it lasts, **his inner piped up.

_I don't believe that is an option, Baka. _Sasuke answered, but as he tried to comfort the now crying and asleep Sakura, he couldn't help but let his eyes drift closed. His dreams were filled of Sakura, sweet and caring, and how she smelled, which he had not even noticed until he was stuck in a position that made it hard not to notice.

..,,::;;//++in Sakura's dream++\\;;::,,..

_She was running along with the rest of her squad, just a few steps behind the slowest of the others, she was, after all, the newest member. She looked ahead of her, at the back of the person in front of her's mask through the eyes of her own mask. She didn't know exactly what to expect of the upcoming mission._

"_It really is more of a battle, part of a war than anything else, Sakura," Tsunade had warned her. More of a war could mean many things. All she knew was that her team was assigned to help in this "battle" against Sound._

_She came into the clearing and came face to face with not only the Sound army, but a few members of the Akatsuki. She took off into the midst of the battle. As she was facing one nin, her kunai in a power struggle against the opponents, she heard a deep voice say, "Don't worry about her, I will take care of her," _

_She turned around, and for a moment thought she saw Sasuke with his Sharingan on, but no, the person she was now facing was far worse than Sasuke, she was facing his older brother, Uchiha Itachi._

_The murderer of the entire Uchiha clan._

_Just as these thoughts were put through her head, she was pulled into the realm where Itachi ruled, his Mangekyou showing her things as he wanted her to see them, not as they actually were. She was chained to the third Hokage's nose and was overlooking the village being torn apart. _

"_This won't work on me, Itachi," she said, "you have to make an image convincing enough for me to believe it." _

_Next he tried the 72 hours of pain, that didn't work either, she knew how to shut off the pain receptors in the brain so that they could only receive signals, not send them._

_She thought she was out of it finally. She was fighting with him._

Ha, _she thought, _now he realizes, that I am not affected by his Tsukiyomi.

_But as she fought the older brother, the younger appeared between two bodies, and he came charging at her, ignoring his older brother until later, after all, at the moment, they had a common threat to dispose of. _

_As Itachi went to go fight elsewhere, Sasuke and Sakura went at it, Sakura drawing her Katana blade. _

"_I despise you," Sasuke said between blows. "You were too weak to protect yourself multiple times."_


	8. Chapter 8

Sakura woke up, the nightmare had finally been too much for her, and she had gained full consciousness with no intention of going back to sleep. As she was about to roll over, she realized that she couldn't. There was a soft, nice-smelling, warm something keeping her from moving, and while she enjoyed the feeling, because "it" was very comfortable, she needed to get up, and she wanted to know what the heck had such a tight hold on her. She could hear it's heart beat and even breathing now.

She nearly gasped, then remembered that she didn't know who it was, and waking it up would cause a potentially dangerous thing to happen: she would have to face whomever "it" happened to be.

She noticed that she was clutched tightly to "it's" chest, and that "it" seemed very unwilling to let her go. What was going on here?

After twenty minutes of trying to get up, Sakura was very very angry and frustrated, not to mention tired, you try getting a strong person to let go of you!. She poked it in the chest, hard. It grumbled and rolled over, pulling her with it, straight on top of "him" as the lack of breasts now stated. She sighed, now she knew who it was, but what the hell was he doing in her bed, or in her bedroom, for that matter? Not that she would really care in a while.

**Maybe he wanted to apologize? **Inner asked.

_Sasuke? Apologize? HA!' _Sakura thought.

She poked him again, this time he groaned and starting rubbing his eyes with one hand, the other still pinning her to his chest.

'Hmmm….' Sasuke thought. 'I feel warm. I like it. Did she give me an extra blanket or something? I'll have to thank her later…yeah…right…'

"um….Sasuke?" Sakura asked, muffled by his chest. "You can let go of me now."

Sasuke jumped up, dumping both him and Sakura on the floor.

"S-Sakura?" he asked, staring at her.

"NO DUH, GENIUS!" Sakura yelled. "What are you doing in my room?"

"I came to apologize," he muttered, getting to his feet and putting his hands in his pockets. "But if you don't want me to, I don't have to."

"What?" Sakura yelled.

"Hn. You're even more annoying than usual in the morning," Sasuke mumbled, leaning down to _almost _her eye level.

Sakura nearly began crying. It was the same words. The same words he said every time he saw her when they were younger. When he had to protect her., when he had to train with her, when she asked him out, whenever she said anything "pathetic" or did something "pitifully", no matter where they were, those words would spring to his lips. Was that all she ever was? Annoying? Pitiful? Pathetic? She bowed her head, pulling the tears back in, she had only cried once because of him, she wouldn't do it again.

Sasuke looked down at her. The same pang in his heart, he felt it again. It had always been smaller. Like when she had protected the bridge builder, the pang had come, and he had reacted without thinking, or when she had been sad. He reacted again, without thinking. He bent down, brought her chin up, and kissed her. After a while of enjoying the feeling, he realized what he did, got up, and walked out of the room.

"Maybe you aren't as annoying as I originally thought," He mumbled.

Sakura sat like that, shocked, then decided that it was probably about time for breakfast. She rose and went down the stairs to get everything ready.

She was done with Sasuke's ommellette and halfway done with her own, when Sasuke walked downstairs. She handed him his ommellette, bacon with tomatoes, and then took her own up stairs. She also grabbed the Konoha Shinobi Times. The ninja had a different newspaper than the regular people. After all, they didn't want pain and killing all over the civillian times, and that _was _the life of a shin obi.

She read through the headlines. It seemed that Sound had decided on who their leader was to be, but had not told the press or, apparently contacted him yet.

Then she read the obituaries. It was a habit.

Hyuuga Ayame- she didn't know her, but would call Hinata to say she was sorry for her family's loss.

Then she read the next one.

"Ookami Seru" She read out loud to herself, "left his daughter, Suki, without any living relatives to care for her."

She stared at the page, then burst out crying. Ookami-san was one of the ninjashe had healed when she was younger. His wife and herself had become fast friends while waiting in the lobby for him to recover. Two months later, Suki was born, and four months after that, the wife, Light, had died as well. Now Seru was gone, too. Who was going to take care of Suki?

Sasuke found her sitting like that, crying and clutching the newspaper.

When he saw her, he was shocked. This was a girl whom he had only seen cry twice, two experiences he never wanted to repeat. This girl had been pretty emotionally strong, for a girl of course (something he would never admit), and, though she would hardly ever cry for pain, or when he called her annoying, and here she was, kneeling and crying. What could possibly ever mess up her mind so badly that she cried, ever?

He noticed that she was holding something, though it was too wet, blotted, and crumpled for him to read it. He could tell, however, that she was clutching it to herself like a lifeline.

Sasuke didn't know what to do, so he knelt beside her.

"Sakura?" He asked. "Are you alright?"

"No." Came the mumbled reply.

Sasuke sighed. This was just great.\

"What happened?"

"Ookami-sa died!" She yelled, slightly muffled by her hands. "He left Suki-chan without a mommy or daddy! Who are they going to send her to?"

Sasuke was dumbstruck. A wolf had left a child without a mother or father? Why was she worried about a wolf, or a wolf-child?

"Huh?" was his intelligent reply.

"Oookami-san was a ninja I healed a few years ago. His wife and I became fast friends. Then she had Suki, a few months after Seru healed. Four months after Suki's birth, the wife, Light, died. Now Suki, who's four, is without a mom or dad! What should I do?"

"Is it really that hard?" he asked.

Sakura glared at him, then looked down and nodded.

Sasuke sighed. "Adopt her."

"I'm an ANBU, how could I possibly take care of her?" Sakura asked, really annoyed that she couldn't solve her problem.

"Resign for awhile. When she becomes a ninja herself, or when she gets old enough to be left alone, go back up to ANBU again, but in the meantime, just take on a genin squad. They don't get very many out of village missions."

Sakura looked at her hands. It seemed so simple, but some things were like that: they seemed so simple, but were really complicated. Sure she had the room for the child, and could make enough money as a Jounin to support her, but what if Suki didn't like her? Wait, she already knew the kid.

"Do you really think it will work out?" She asked Sasuke.

"Yes."

Fine then, I'll do it!" Sakura said, looking up and smiling so brightly that Sasuke nearly smiled himself.

_Kami-sama! What's going on with me? _Sasuke thought.

All inner-Sasuke would do was sing **L-O-V-E! We're in L-O-V-E!**

* * *

**..,, //::;;123456789987654321;;::\\ ,,..**

Within the hour, Sakura was dressed and seated in front of the Gondaime Hokage.

"So you are temporarily resigning?" Tsunade asked.

"yes" Sakura answered.

"To adopt a comrade's child…"

"Yes"

"Do you realize that you are going to need a 'father'?" Tsunade asked. Seeing Sakura's face, she added: "It's because of your age."

"What do you mean by father?"

"You have to be livng with and in some kind of a relationship with a guy." Tsunade answered.

"Will Sasuke work?"

"If he agrees…" Tsunade answered. She really had not thought of the Uchiha. He was stoic and most likely did not like kids. But, he _was_ living with Sakura.

Sakura did some hand signals. She recognized that jutsu…

"What are you doing…"

There was a poof and…Sasuke appeared? In a towel?! Still wet, to boot!!!

"What the…" he began.

"It's rude, but I found a way to summon you! There's a slug in your hair," Sakura answered.

Sasuke started digging in his hair, and found the small, green thing. He put it on her outstretched hand.

"You could have asked," he whispered to her, then he tied the towel around his waist tighter. "Does anybody have some extra clothes?"

Tsunade walked over to a chest camouflaged to look like a bench and dug out some clothes for the boy. A few minutes later, Sasuke was sitting in a chair wearing Black pants and a black t-shirt.

Tsunade quickly explained the situation, with a little help from Sakura.

"Uchiha, do you accept?" She asked…


	9. Chapter 9

**This is to tell you that I'm not dead! Hi hi peoples! You guys need to review for me to remember to update. I always thought people were joking when they said that, but they are definitely not.**

**Fkfakjf**

Sakura stared at Sasuke, waiting for his response.

"Well, Uchiha, do you accept?" Tsunade asked, wondering if he would answer.

Sasuke, meanwhile, shifted from Tsunade to Sakura with his eyes. Making it seems as if he was deciding, while actually just enjoying the feeling of annoying Sakura.

"I…accept the terms," he said, fighting down a smirk at Sakura's expression. "It isn't the way I thought about starting a family, but it is a start."

"But it's not like she'll have the Sharingan, Sasuke," Sakura told him. "You do understand that, right?"

"There are ways," Sasuke whispered to her.

Sakura sensed the topic wasn't to be brought up and shut up. Inner Sakura, however, was going crazy inside her mind.

Sasuke sat and watched as she got a blank look over her features.

"You really need to stop talking to yourself," he said.

Sakura snapped her head up to look at Sasuke, "Hmm?"

Tsunade watched the couple interact for a little while before walking out of the room and leaving them to settle their own disputes.

Two hours later found Sakura and Sasuke arguing over whether they should buy a pink or blue bed set.

"There is no way anybody could like that color!" Sasuke said.

"Hello! It's my hair color!" Sakura reminded him. "Besides, she's a girl; girls' rooms are usually pink.

"No," Sasuke said.

In the end, they agreed to compromise, instead buying a purple bed spread with a dragon print.

Unfortunately for the two, Ino had been in the shop and had taken it upon herself to tell everyone that Sakura and Sasuke were now having a baby.

Naruto was running on his way to Sakura's house before Ino had even finished her sentence, planning on kicking Sasuke's butt.

Sasuke opened the door to a fuming Naruto with purple paint splattered across his uniform.

"What, dobe?" he asked. "Sakura and I are busy."

"You got Sakura-chan pregnant!" Naruto yelled.

"No, we haven't even done that yet," Sasuke told him, happy that Sakura was somewhere else, or else Naruto would have been pummeled for being an idiot and he would have been pummeled for being a pervert.

"YET?" Naruto screeched.

Sasuke checked the stair case behind him before taking Naruto by the arm and walking off, closing the door behind him.

He walked to the tree in the front yard, dragging a protesting Naruto with him.

"Yes, yet," Sasuke muttered.

"So you and Sakura-chan are…" Naruto trailed off.

"Not officially," Sasuke said, "I haven't asked her out yet."

"Then how are you having a kid?" Naruto nearly yelled.

"Sakura's adopting a child of one of her dead friends," Sasuke said.

"So, it isn't going to be your biological kid?"

"No."

"Oh," Naruto mumbled. "Hey, have you heard about that new store…"

It took twenty minutes to get Naruto to shut up enough for Sasuke to get him to leave.

By the time that Sasuke got back into the house, Sakura had finished the first coat of painting and was halfway through the second. They had the wooden floors covered with clear plastic, making sure that they wouldn't be turning purple anytime soon.

Outside the door, the toys and furniture they had bought for the kid were stacked up, ready to be moved inside and arranged so that she would have a bookshelf, a desk, a bed, and a chest of drawers and still have a large space to play in.

"Hey," Sasuke greeted when he saw Sakura using a roller on the walls.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura answered. "Grab a roller and get to work."

While they were working, Sakura had time to talk to her alternate self for a while.

**Sasuke-kun?** Inner Sakura mumbled. **When did **_**that**_** start up again?**

_I have no idea._

Sasuke watched Sakura go over the same spot in the wall four times, over and over again.

_She's talking to herself again, _he thought with an internal laugh.

They only had a day to get the place finished before they were supposed to pick Suki up from the local orphanage.

Hopefully they could fix up the room in time.

**Review to remind me to keep updating. If you can guess who the new Oto-kage is, I'll probably update even faster.**


	10. Chapter 10

**OKAY PEOPLES! I've decided to put all my other stories on hold until I finish Sasuke's true love...or magically find the notebook I had the other stories in. If you have one other story besides Sasuke's True Love you want me to up load, tell me in a review.**

EVERYONE READ THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! Sakura and Sasuke watched as the woman from the orphanage walked in with Suki. She looked so sad, it nearly made Sakura cry just at the sight of her. She was cuddling one of her favorite toys, a stuffed Wolf with a black collar and behind her trailed to wolves, of their own accord. They ignored the woman as she shooed them, choosing to just walk up to Suki and nuzzle her. She sat down right there.

"Sakura?" Sasuke mumbled. He would never admit it, but dogs, and especially wolves, gave him the creeps. When he was with Orochimaru, they always popped up when he was on a mission and he failed, which was sure to earn him a very good beating from the snake-like man.

"Hmm?" she said, just before walking over to the group of three (**A/N: The lady already left, since she briefed the two before dropping off Suki)** and plopping down. The wolf nearest her laid his head in her lap, waiting for her to start petting it like she normally did.

"You didn't say anything about dogs," he whispered.

"Well, there are two," she said, smiling up at him. "I know you don't like dogs, but oh well. Besides, they aren't dogs, they're wolves, there _is_ a difference. Your own mask is a wolf anyway!"

"That's a different story altogether…" he muttered, looking off into another direction.

"Suki?" Sakura asked, ignoring Sasuke. "Do you want to see your new room?"

Suki nodded. Sakura was getting worried about the silence. Usually Suki was so loud it was hard to hear yourself think. She was so loud she could easily rival Naruto. Sakura led her up to the purple bed room, trying not to laugh as the two canines basically chased Sasuke up the stairs.

"Is this okay?" Sakura asked.

"Mm-hmm…" Suki mumbled. "Sakura-chan? Where will Kawaii and Fluffy sleep?"

Sakura laughed while Sasuke looked mortified. She could basically hear the poor guy's thoughts. "Please not my room. Please not my room. Please not…"

"Do you two think you could deal with sharing a couple of pillows and a blanket?" She asked the dogs.

After a brief glance at each other, the dogs nodded. 

"Are they Inuzukas or something?" Sasuke asked.

"They are kind of like Inuzukas, but they come from a different village, they moved here a couple of months after Suki was born," Sakura whispered to him.

Sakura came back two minutes later with a few extra pillows and a blanket, to find Sasuke glaring at the two wolves.

"Ugh, you guys like you're going to kill each other."

"Hn," Sasuke mumbled.

They spent most of the day getting Suki settled in. She was already in the academy, so she had to go to bed early, after a healthy dinner of Ramen, courtesy of Naruto. 

Sasuke didn't have any missions, so he took Suki to the Academy the next morning, giving Sakura time to go ask Tsunade about what she was going to be doing for the next few years.

…half way across town…

"So you want to take a Gennin Team?" Tsunade asked. Sometimes she really couldn't understand the girl. She was the best medic-nin, she had everything going for her, and she wanted to temporarily quit.

"Yes, I need to take care of Suki for a while." Sakura answered. Ah, she had forgotten that.

"Very well, the next graduates will be coming out in a couple of weeks, be ready at the fifth training area on this date," Tsunade told her, handing Sakura a piece of paper. "By the way, I'll need your Bingo Book and your Mask back before that date."

"Arigatou," Sakura said, turning to walk out of her sensei's office, then heard Naruto's booming voice echoing through the hall. "Sorry, sensei," she mumbled, then turned on her heel and disappeared amongst her usual cherry blossoms.

She popped up in her home, right next to a sleeping Sasuke. Holding down an "aawww," she turned and walked out of his room. She knew Suki was at school, and that Kawaii used to belong to her father, so Kawaii was probably home, but Fluffy went everywhere with Suki, even if he did belong to Ookami-san as well. 

There was a knock at her door, and she ran downstairs to catch the person before they left.

"Yes?" she said, throwing the door open.

There, staring at her as if Sakura's presence was unsuspected, was the social worker Sakura had met once before: at her father's funeral.

"Um, Sweetie, I'm here to discuss the will of one…" at this she shuffled through the papers in her arms, "Ookami Seru?"

"Okay, what about it?" Sakura asked.

"It has his wishes for the arrangements of his daughter. One of these arrangements has already been met, but there are others. The first was to have Suki live with Haruno Sakura. The second is to have Kawaii and Fluffy's first pup is Suki's pup, the rest can be given away, and at least one should be kept by Sakura for herself. The last was that, if Suki graduates early, she is not to become ANBU until she is at least sixteen."

"Okay," Sakura said, she had already known about all that. "Is there anything else?"

"No," the social worker told her, smiling. "Good-bye."

Sakura walked back in the house and was about to plop onto the couch for some quality vegetation when Sasuke came in. "Can we watch Ace of Cakes please?" he asked.

"Okay…" Sakura said. She had been planning to watch it anyway. Hinata and Neji were hooked on the show.

"You know that we have to pick up Suki in an hour, right?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah," Sakura mumbled.

"You going to pick her up?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Kay."

They spent an entire hour watching "Ace of Cakes", then Sakura stood up, and for the second time that day, disappeared in her whirl of Sakura petals to appear next to the Academy, two seconds before the bell rang and Suki rushed out.

"Hi, Suki," Sakura greeted, grabbing the girl's hand.

"Hi, Sakura-chan!" 

Fluffy ran up to Sakura and greeted her with a wet nose and wagging tail.

"Hello to you, too," Sakura greeted. "Okay, is everyone ready to go home now?"

"Mm-hmm!" Suki told her. 

On the way home, Suki began to play twenty questions.

"Why does Sasuke hate dogs?" Suki asked.

"He doesn't hate them…he's just uncomfortable around them," Sakura explained.

"Why is your hair pink?" 

"My hair is pink because I come from a special family from Mist."

"Then why aren't you in Mist."

"Because my family moved here before I was born."

"Oh." Suki said. "Why is the…" 

This went on for a while, until they reached Sakura's house. As they walked through the door, Sasuke came out of the kitchen, wearing one of Sakura's aprons. He wasn't holding them as much as balancing them.

"Hi," he mumbled.

"Aawww…" Sakura squealed. "That's so cute."

"Don't get used to it."

The new family ate and Suki went to bed, and eventually Sasuke and Sakura fell asleep on the couch, watching Ace of Cakes. 

**A/N: I will tell you who is the new Oto-kage next chapter.**


	11. Chapter 11

This is to tell you that I'm not dead

A few weeks after they got settled in as a "family," Sasuke was taking Suki to the academy, as Sakura was meeting her gennin team, when he noticed four Sound nin standing off to the side of the main street. He felt them look at him for a quick moment before they flickered and disappeared.

"Suki," Sasuke said, getting the little girl's attention. Suki looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. "I might be a little late going to pick you up today, but whatever you do, do _not_ walk home, okay?"

"Mm-hmm."

Sasuke dropped her off, then "poof"-ed over to Sakura's house. There were already Sound nin waiting for him.

"Hello, losers," Sasuke muttered, glaring at them, going back into the mode he used when Sakura, Suki, Naruto, or someone he trusted or liked wasn't in the room. "To what does Konoha owe the disgrace of your presence?"

"Sasuke-san, we have come to ask a question," one, obviously the leader, said. He stepped forward, looking at Sasuke as if gauging a specimen's reaction to a certain amount of stimulation.

"What question do you have to ask?" Sasuke mumbled, his eyes turning nearly to slits as he glared.

"Well, it is a _difficult_ question to ask of someone who is technically from another village."

"Ask the question and get out."

"We would like to ask you if you would be willing to take a position of power in the Oto government. We need someone who can make us allies with Konoha again. Someone who can not only be powerful and protect as well as lead us, but also be able to- how was I ordered to say this?-assist us in becoming an acceptable part of the Suna and Konoha diplomatic arrangements."

"Why the heck would Oto want that for the first time in so many years?"

"We are tired of war."

"Why do you think I could do it?"

"Because you are the only s-class criminal to ever be re-accepted to a village."

Sasuke glared even harder at the man. It didn't make sense, and it would put everything in jeopardy, but they couldn't really do anything to him, most of the Oto-nin were surprisingly weak for somebody that Orochimaru trusted.

"I will…consider it," Sasuke mumbled. "Now get the heck out of this house!"

The Oto-nin flickered and disappeared, and Sasuke sank down into the couch. Great, this was just another favor to ask of Tsunade. "Can I become the Kage of another village?" was a question that was definitely not going to fly with the current Hokage, or the Kazekage for that matter. Why did his life finally mellow out, somewhat, only to be flipped upside down and turned into utter turmoil all over again? Oh, right, because he was Uchiha Sasuke, and the entire Universal Powers were against him.

He sighed, turned on "Ace of Cakes," and was soon counting down the seconds until he could go pick up Suki.

Meanwhile, halfway across the village, in training area five, Sakura was watching as yet another genin fell for the same trap…again! This kid was worse than Naruto could ever be. The other two she could approve of, they had already reached their goal, on the individual, which is what they were testing, and were waiting for the boy to finish so that they could move onto team.

Sakura sighed, it was only ten o'clock. She watched as the student, a boy, was hit by four shuriken, then looked over at the other two members, one boy and one girl, who were watching the proceedings with a look of hopelessness.

"Reno, stop, we're going to move onto the team examination," she told him. "You have failed as an individual."

Working together with other people seemed to be even harder for Reno, and, eventually, after an hour of trying to get him to be able to help them, they gave up, and finished a three-man "mission" with two people.

"Again, Reno, you _alone_ fail," Sakura sighed. "I am sorry, but I will take on Jin and Rukia, but you will be sent back to the Academy. I will find some replacement for the third cell if need be."

Reno looked at her as if he were about to cry.

"But-" he began.

"There are no buts. I am sorry."

Rukia looked down and Jin looked peeved. If they weren't losing a team member, Sakura would have blessed her luck. Jin and Rukia would work together perfectly.

Sakura sent Reno to the approximate class level she believed he was at before dismissing the other two and going to Tsunade's office.

"Sakura?" Tsunade asked, still hung over. "What are you doing here?"

"I've come to talk about the genin team you assigned me," Sakura muttered

"What about it?"

Sakura paused. How were you supposed to explain a circumstance like this.

"I only had to fail one student and I don't know what to do about the other two."

"You were supposed to grade them as a team."

"I did, and the other two tried helping him, but in the end, in order to finish the fictional mission, they had to work on their own and use clones to do all his jobs as he got caught in nearly every trap."

"Are you saying they can handle it by themselves?"

"Yes."

"Just keep them then."

"Huh?" Sakura asked. She must have gotten confused in the above dialogue.

"Just keep the two remaining students."

Sakura just stared at her for a little while, there are _always_ three genin on a starting team.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Tsunade asked, irritated. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE!!"

Sakura got home just as Sasuke came through the door with Suki.

"Why do you look all down?" She asked him.

"I'll tell you later." He mumbled.

So much for getting closer. 


	12. Chapter 12

This is to tell you that I'm not dead

Sasuke sat up nearly all night, staring at the wall in the living room, where Sakura was asleep, curled up around him. Thoughts like _…how can I tell her about this…_ and_ …Tsunade won't approve, she'll make Sakura break up with me…_ were running through his head so fast it was hard for even him to track.

He looked down at the only kunoichi to have wormed herself in underneath his skin. _Annoying, conniving Sakura blossom, _he thought affectionately. It was right after this that he realized something: he was falling in love with Sakura, and had been, apparently, for years. It was even making him change.

Where he would usually glare at everyone even more darkly than Hyuuga Neji, and refuse to associate with any one, or create any bonds, he was openly hanging out and going out with Sakura, was opening up, not only to her, but to her, and now, somehow, _his_ friends. Sure, he would have become close with Naruto anyway, but with the Hyuugas, with Nara, with Aburame, or Inuzuka, or _especially_ Yamanaka? What was going wrong with him?

He looked down, and automatically his mood softened. He began to think: _not wrong…somewhat right. _He scoffed at himself. He sounded like some love-struck, "romantic," freak like Lee. At least by admitting his feelings he had gotten rid, temporarily, of his inner. Sakura turned over, mumbling about, "get that snake off of me, it's too pink…" made his thoughts go back to Sound.

_I could talk with Tsunade. It would aid with an alliance, she must see that. I could even ask her to send some proper ninja with me, to train the youngsters and to help organize Oto. I will ask her for Sakura, not only as a medic, but because I would really like for her to come with me. Of course, I'll have to organize everything else first, and ask Sakura herself. I'll set up _something…

With such thoughts in his head, he eventually got tired of thinking of anything Oto related, and thought of Sakura instead. He soon fell asleep, still snuggling with a warm Sakura.

The next morning, the pair was awoken by a rather large ball of fluff, followed by a small human body.

"GET UP!!" Suki screamed.

Sasuke sat up, and glared at the clock. It was Six o'clock in the morning.

"Sakura, unless you want to have a reputation like Kakashi's, I suggest you get up and go take a shower, get dressed, and get to the training grounds. You scheduled practice for seven this morning, remember?" Sasuke whispered to a reluctant Sakura.

Eventually, between the two of them, Sasuke and Suki got Sakura out of bed and on her way to "work.

"Oi, you need to be in school in about an hour, Suki," Sasuke said, looking down with a grin. "What do you want for breakfast?"

Kawaii and Fluffy were the ones who got most of Suki's Eggs and bacon, not that they minded. Suki did get to class on time, which took away Sasuke's most useful excuse not to talk to Tsunade today.

He walked around aimlessly for a while, brooding, not that he'd ever admit it, over the fact that his life was just getting better, and then it took a turn for the worst. He looked up at the Tower and sighed. There was no point in a voiding this any longer, he needed to go see the Hokage.

Halfway up the stairs, he ran into Sakura, who was so busy with some notes she had in her hand that she didn't realize who he was and where he was going, something Sasuke was silently thankful for.

Inside Tsunade's office, however, he would not be able to avoid questions, should Sakura walk in.

"Ah, Uchiha, I was just going to speak with you," she told him as he walked through the door. Sasuke noticed the Sound ninja trying to sneak out of the room. "I was just notified of your possible change in status."

"It hasn't been decided on my part, yet, Tsunade-sama," Sasuke muttered. "I was just coming to speak with you about my _real_ options."

"Just what do you mean about "real", Uchiha?" Tsuande asked.

"For one, I don't want to become a traitor again, and if I were to accept the job, I would like an alliance with Konoha, if not Konoha _and _Suna, not only to help me put Oto back together, but so that I would be able to stay in touch with the people I have lately become attached to. Also, I would like to be able to aid in destroying the remains of the Akatsuki."

Tsunade raised an eyebrow.

"Let me guess, you will also want to take Sakura with you as well?" Tsunade asked.

"If she agrees," Sasuke mumbled.

"For god's sake, would you two just start dating already?!" Someone yelled, walking into the office. There, in all of his glory, stood Hatake Kakashi. "This is starting to sound like one of Jiraiya's novels, and even though I do enjoy them, the real life application is getting to be too much for me!"€

Sasuke stared at his former sensei, shocked. Usually, the man was just as silent concerning relationships as Sasuke usually was, it was a shocker that he would have such an outburst. Too bad he mentioned Icha-Icha.

"Kakashi, what is the meaning of this?" Tsunade asked.

"Geez, Tsunade, can't you feel the tension, it's almost as bad as the tension between you and-" right there Kakashi was cut of by a fist to the face.

"Shut up, Hatake, or you'll be doing cleaning duty for the next three months," Tsunade muttered, a vein twitching horribly above her right temple.

Sasuke nearly laughed. Was he dreaming, or was everyone really that out of their minds today?

"Are you two alright?" Sasuke asked.

"I believe Hatake is drunk," Tsunade mumbled.

Sasuke had to agree with her there, raising an eyebrow at Kakashi silently. At least he had Tsunade's blessing to do what he thought he needed to do. At least he could take Sakura and Suki with him.

"Uchiha!" Tsunade called right before he left. Sasuke turned, looking at the Hokage. "Take Kakashi back to his house, he's out cold."

As Kakashi was unceremoniously dumped on Sasuke, he grimaced, disgusted by the amount of alcohol he could smell on the man. That was one of the 'ninja sins": over-use of alcohol. Then he looked at the Hokage. Never mind that.

Halfway across town, sitting and watching her genin duo train, was Sakura. Suddenly, she sneezed.

_What is Sasuke up to?_ She thought.

She didn't think it odd that Sasuke would be telling someone something about her, just odd that he had that look in his eyes this morning. Ever since he had come back, she had gotten better at telling what mood he was in. The fact that she had realized that Sasuke wasn't lying when he told her what he thought of her may have helped. The boy was intentionally brutally honest, and didn't care who he hurt.

That was one thing she had found she liked about him, ironically. She couldn't fake that he liked her, because she knew he did. She didn't know how far that like went, but at least he could stand her now.

She looked up and saw that the two she was supposed to be training were exhausted, but had managed to successfully run up the tree.

"Okay, guys, stop before you die of charka exhaustion, okay?" She asked.

"Hai, Sakura-sensei!" they told her, before walking off of the training area to go home. Sakura looked at her watch. She had to go pick up Suki in thirty minutes.

Outside of Sakura's house, Sasuke was lounging against a tree. "I've decided to accept, on the condition that you will not harm _anyone_ I chose to allow to accompany me."

The Sound-nin nodded, knowing better than to anger the man who had killed the former ruler of their country, and his own brother. They didn't blame him, as both were evil, tyrannical men, and both were openly terrorists.

"This is an acceptable request," the nin stated.

"Sasuke, what's going on?" a voice came from not far away from them.

The two men turned to see Sakura standing there, holding Suki's hand and looking as if she had just been hit by a rock.

"Are you going to betray us all again?" She asked, unbelieving.

Sasuke looked at the Sound ninja threateningly, they left almost immediately. Sasuke grabbed Sakura's arm and Suki's hand and walked into the house. As soon as he was in there, he turned her to look at him. "Sakura, we need to talk. A lot."

Sakura looked bewildered. "What's happened?" she asked.

Sasuke looked down at Suki pointedly. Taking a hint, the girl, looked up at Sakura. "I'm gonna go to bed now," she told her, then she went upstairs and into her bedroom.

"I've been offered the position of Oto-kage," Sasuke told her. "I've already talked to Tsunade, and worked up an alliance with Konoha. She still needs to talk to Gaara about Suna."

Sakura looked up at him.

**WELLL…I SPENT NEARLY A WEEK WRITING THAT! Bye! JK JK!! Heres the rest of the chapter**

"You're going to leave me alone again?" Sakura asked, genuinely confused.

Sasuke sighed. What was it with this girl and jumping to conclusions so easily now?

"No, Sakura, that's not it either," he mumbled. "I wanted to know if you'll come with me."

Sakura looked dumbfounded.

"But what about-" Sakura began, but Sasuke cut her off before she could finish.

"Tsunade's sending some Chuunin to help with training the academy students," he told her.

"What about my Gennin team?" she supplied.

"They're coming with us, because their parents are some of the nin already assigned," Sasuke mumbled. Now wasn't a good time to explain that her Gennin knew before she did.

Sakura sighed, then looked at the floor. This was Sasuke. He wasn't like she was, he probably wanted her answer as soon as possible.

_If Tsunade said it's okay…_Sakura thought.

**Just GO! Sakura!** Inner supplied.

Sakura looked Sasuke in the eyes, and took a long hard look before deciding.

"When do we have to pack by?" She asked.

Sasuke could have kissed her, twirled her around, and then hugged her until she could barely breathe, all silently so that he wouldn't have to make himself look any less Uchiha, but right then, there was a scream of joy from the stair well.

It looked like Suki decided to do some sleuthing instead of some sleeping.

Sakura laughed at Sasuke's expression, which caused him to glare at her even more.

Suki ran down the steps and tackled Sasuke's legs.

"Can Fluffy and Kawaii come, too?"

**THERE'S the real ending. If you just spent all that time scrolling(not much, I know), then go back and read it… kay?**


	13. Chapter 13

This is to tell you that I'm not dead

Sakura stared at all the boxes that were stacked up in her house. Her pictures, her books her first uniform, the ribbons Ino had given her over the years, her first headband, now torn and beaten, all of Suki's stuff, all of Sasuke's possessions, in short, her memories, were stored in those plain, boring, brown compressed and shaped papers. Then she looked outside at the "For Sale" sign that was marring her immaculate lawn, the lawn being courtesy of Ino.

"Sasuke, why do we have to sell my house?" she asked, trying not to cry.

"We have the complex to come back to when we come to visit Konoha," Sasuke told her.

"We could just rent it out, then we would have a steady income," Sakura mumbled.

"While nin never have a truly steady income, I think we can do pretty well in Oto," Sasuke told her, laughing.

Sakura sighed for the thousandth time that day. Suki had already been "poofed" with a bunch of the other academy students and Genin to sound. Now they were only waiting for Sakura to agree to activate the seals on all of her stuff and send it to the Kage's house Oto. As soon as she gave the word, they would both "poof" to Oto and start unpacking.

"Go ahead," She mumbled, a single tear leaking out. Sasuke performed a few quick hand signs and the entirety of the boxes disappeared.

"Come on, Sakura, it isn't that bad," Sasuke told her, then grabbed a hold of her and said, "I'll meet you in Oto."

He disappeared slowly in flames. Sakura took one look around and disappeared herself, the Cherry blossoms sweeping out of an open window with the sight breeze as soon as she completely left.

She reappeared in the Oto-kage's quarters and nearly jumped out of her skin when Sasuke grabbed her hand, leading her off into the house. Suki was in front of them, as Sasuke had told her to go choose a room so that they knew where to put all of her toys. Innocently, Suki had asked if Sakura-chan would be choosing a room, too, since the first room they landed in was obviously already claimed as Sasuke.

"No, she'll stay with me," Sasuke said as gently as he could manage. Suki looked confused for a while, then uttered a small "oh."

Sakura looked at Sasuke. "Who said I would be staying in your bed," she asked.

Sasuke smirked. "I did," he simply said.

It took Sasuke twelve months, a year, 365 days, however you wish to word it, to convince Sakura to marry him. Nine months later, two twin boys came, Fugaku and Itachi, named after his father and the strongest man Sasuke had ever known. For reasons unknown to Sakura, it took longer to decide on Fugaku than Itachi for Sasuke. Why could he possibly take so long.

_Hate me…become stronger…to kill me. _

The day before Sakura died, she finally asked. Sasuke, gray, old, and blind from overuse of the Sharingan, looked at her.

"He didn't do it. He just took the blame, and why would Konoha investigate when they had someone far stronger than enough ready to say that he did it?

Sakura died, at the age of 70, holding the hand of the guy she had gone from lusting after, to mourning, to hating, to befriending, and eventually loving. Sasuke died an hour after of a heart attack. The rumor is that he died of heartbreak, a result of separation from his one True Love.

It may have taken them a while, but they finally realized: Sakura is Sasuke's True Love.


	14. READ THIS IF YOU WANT TO SEE SUKI

Hey, this is for all of you who want to know what Suki looks like grown up. It's on my deviantart. So, here is the url(take out spaces)

http:// uchihasukitheangel. deviantart. com /art/Ookami-Suki-All-grown-Up-90594983


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